Monday, 23 January 2017

The summer before his death, John Lennon hired a 43-foot
yacht and, with a small crew, sailed to Bermuda for a little R&R. Arriving
after a storm-tossed passage, he rented a house on the island and reconnected
with his muse. The result was his final album, Double Fantasy, named after a freesia he spotted on a visit to the
local botanical gardens.

It’s hard to believe there’s any cranny of Lennon’s life
that hasn’t been picked over, but journalist Scott Neil has found one of the
less-explored and tracked down those he met in Bermuda. The Lennon recalled by
islanders was not the self-obsessed star they expected. He was polite,
laid-back, into healthy eating and clean living. A generous, companionable man
who returned favours and remembered kindnesses shown him. After five years out
of the limelight, he relished going incognito as ‘John Greene’ and rewarded
those who respected his privacy.

The book’s style is a little feverish at the outset, as the “former
Beatle” battles crashing waves, alone at the helm against a “storm of
Shakespearean proportions”. But once the prose settles down, the story is
well-told and the reminiscences deftly woven into a highly readable narrative. It’s
a tale about negotiating celebrity and finding the quietude to write. Songs
like ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Watching The Wheels’ – Neil shows how both were
inspired by events in Bermuda – may not be Lennon’s greatest but they fulfil his
aim of writing for people of his own age group.

The sensitive artwork is by Bermudian artist
Graham Foster, who also designed the memorial sculpture to Lennon in the
Bermuda Botanical Gardens. Best of all are the scattered photos of the singer,
some with son Sean in tow. He looks relaxed, like a man ‘starting over’ (another
song-title), blissfully unaware of what lay ahead.First published in R2 (Rock'n'Reel)